Nonrevolving credit–which includes student loans–was up $20.72 billion, to $1.711 trillion, the biggest dollar increase since November 2001. Federal student credit outstanding rose to $453 billion in January from $425 billion in December. The figure is up more than four-fold from 2008–a sign high joblessness in the U.S. has prompted many people to go back to school.

Revolving credit, which includes credit-card debt, decreased in January by $2.95 billion, to $800.85 billion. December revolving credit rose a revised $3.65 billion.

The consumer-credit report doesn’t include numbers on home mortgages and other real-estate secured loans. But the Fed data are important for the clues to behavior by consumers, whose spending helps propel the economy.

Consumers may be paying down credit cards after running up debt in November and December for the holidays. Or they may be uneasy about the economy and holding back on some purchases.

Consumers faced higher prices to start the year, a Commerce Department report showed last week. The price index for personal-consumption expenditures increased 2.4% on a year-over-year basis in January. That is above the Federal Reserve’s long-term annual inflation target of 2.0%.

Retail gasoline prices are climbing–to an average of $3.849 a gallon on March 5 from $3.317 per gallon at the end of December. Income, meanwhile, is rising only slowly.

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